Re: Newbie Idea

[Brian Wiens <wiensb@algonquinc.on.ca>]

jfm2@club-internet.fr wrote:

> > I disagree.  I'm on a LAN and it took me the better part of two afternoons to
> > download all the packages, one by one (selected one at a time - I usually get
> > about 10 files downloading at once but the problem is that if Netscape, wonderful
> > as it is, crashes, you have to rebuild where you were at - and I still don't have
> > Linux working on any network, PPP or otherwise).  A cut down version would be
> > helpful to anyone who doesn't care to compile from source.  Besides, if it isn't
> > there, the newbie doesn't wonder what it's for and install it "just in case" (as
> > I did, since I have the HD space).
> >
>
> If on a LAN then you should have used FTP install

I should have explained better.  I used my work LAN connection to download it to my
work laptop to take home to transfer to my home machine, which was running RH5.1.  I
can't afford the loss of my phone line for 30 straight hours to download Indy, or
anything else.

> that is: at one
> point you will be presented with a list of packages and you select
> what interests you and only this is downloaded.  A cut down version is
> useful only for people who are using modems: FTP install through a
> modem is not supported so they have to download everything to disk and
> for them and _only_ for them it could be useful to build a light
> version.

This still doesn't answer my other point.  I didn't know what I wanted and the package
names are somewhat cryptic.  To be "safe", I would still install anything which was not
obvious to me that I did _not_ need.  A newbie of my type (am I rare?) would still go
whole hog if they had the space to spare just to be sure not to miss anything
important.

> Another thing you have to consider is that Indy 0.1 will be shortlived
> so IMHO (but this is only my opinion) effort would be better spent on
> 0.2 and make a light version basing on 0.2 instead of 0.1.

Excellent point.  I'm not proposing that the changes be made for 0.1 - Indy is a work
in progress and any major change like this should be considered in a long term
perspective.

> I see
> another area of interest for a light version (but 0.2) and this is CDs
> for magazines: I have seen magazines ship Slackware in no small part
> because Slack is small and thus allows magazines to complement the Cd
> with the usual gratisware Windows crap.  Given the readership in those
> magazines a small Indy in the CD would be far better for Linux than
> Slackware.

Absolutely :-).

Brian Wiens